Micah 4:12

But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. BUT THEY KNOW NOT THE THOUGHTS OF THE LORD. Their unsearchable wisdom and inexhaustible love, overruling seeming disaster to the final good of His people, is the very ground on which the restoration of Israel hereafter (of which the restoration from Babylon is a type) is based in , (cf. with ; Micah 4:12, which prove that Israel-not merely the Christian Church-is the ultimate subject of the prophecy; also in , where Paul had been speaking of the coming salvation of "all Israel," and adds that herein is e...

Consolation follows, _But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, nor understand his counsel_: for verbs in the past tense have the meaning of the present. Here the Prophet recalls the attention of the godly to a subject the most suitable to them: for when the wicked rise up so cruelly against us, we are apt to think that all things are allowed to them, and then their reproaches and slanders immediately take possession of our minds and thoughts, so that we in a manner measure God’s judgment by their words. Hence when the ungodly deride our faith, and boast that we are forsaken by God, we succumb, being as it were filled with amazement: and nothing is easier than to shake off from us faith and the memory of God’s promises, whenever the ungodly are thus insolent. The Prophet then does not without cause apply a remedy which ought to be carefully observed by us. _Who say, condemned is Zion; _...

9-13 Many nations would assemble against Zion to rejoice in her calamities. They would not understand that the Lord had collected them as sheaves are gathered to be threshed; and that Zion would be strengthened to beat them to pieces. Nothing has yet taken place in the history of the Jewish church agreeing with this prediction. When God has conquering work for his people to do, he will furnish them with strength and ability for it. Believers should cry aloud under distresses, with the prayer of faith, not with despondency....

Verse Micah 4:12. _BUT THEY KNOW NOT THE THOUGHTS OF THE LORD_] These think that God has utterly rejected his people, and they shall have a troublesome neighbour no more: but this is not his design; he will afflict them for a time; but these, the enemies of his people, he will gather as _sheaves_ into the _threshing-floor_, there to be trodden, and the wheel to go over them. This is the _counsel_, the _purpose of God_, which these do not understand. The persons here referred to are not only the _Chaldeans_ which were threshed by the _Persians_ and _Medes_; but the Idumeans, Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines, which the Jews afterwards subdued....

BUT THEY KNOW NOT THE THOUGHTS OF THE LORD, NEITHER UNDERSTAND THEY HIS COUNSEL - The pagan did, for their own ends, what God willed for His. The first step was the same; God willed that His people should be punished; they willed to punish them. But all which lay beyond, they saw not; that God willed (on their repentance) to pardon His own people, but to punish themselves for their pride Isaiah 10:7, Isaiah 10:12 and cruelty Zechariah 1:15, Zechariah 1:19. : “Almighty God corrects the elect through the reprobate, as with a rod; after which He condemns the reprobate eternally, as when the son has been disci

EXPOSITION MICAH 4:1 § 4. _The prophet suddenly announces the future glory of the temple mountain and the ideal happiness of the people_ MICAH 4:1 BUT. There is no adversative particle here; the verse is merely connected with what precedes without any expressed contrast. What is implied is that it was impossible that the temple, to which God's high promises attached, should lie waste forever. The passage, Micah 4:1, occurs in Isaiah 2:2, The question as to which prophecy is the earlier cannot be settled. Possibly both prophets borrowed the language of some earlier work

BUT THEY KNOW NOT THE THOUGHTS OF THE LORD, NEITHER UNDERSTAND THEY HIS COUNSEL,.... Which are very different from theirs: the thoughts and designs of the enemies of Zion, in the times of the Maccabees, were, to destroy utterly the people of God, and root them out of the earth, and abolish their religion and worship; but the intentions of God were to defeat them, and bring them to ruin: the views of the kings of the earth, being stirred up by unclean spirits to the battle of Almighty God, will be to extirpate the interest and kingdom of Christ; but the end of the Lord, in suffering them to be gathered together, will be utterly and totally to destroy them; and the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, and the thoughts of his heart, to all generations. Men know their own designs, but they do not know the designs of the Lord; they intend the ruin of others, but God intends to bring about t...

Micah 4:1. _But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it._ God's cause and kingdom shall not be hidden away in a corner: «the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains,» an Alp upon other Alps, higher than all the other hills. The day is coming when the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be the most conspicuous thing in the whole world, «and people shall flow unto it.» The heathen, the people who knew nothing about it, shall flow to it like a great river. Micah 4:2. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob;

CHAPTER 4 _ 1. The future of glory (Micah 4:1) _ 2. The restoration and the final victory (Micah 4:6) Micah 4:1. The last verse predicted the long desolation and ruin of Zion. This is followed at once by a great prophecy of the future of glory in store for Zion. Isaiah also uttered this great prediction. Not that Micah copied Isaiah, nor Isaiah Micah, but the same Spirit gave to the men the same prophecy. It concerns the latter days, which means the coming of Messiah's kingdom on earth. These days are not yet here. To apply these words, even in a spiritual way, to the present age, or to the Church, is a serious mistake. The house of the Lord is not the Church, but the house in Jerusalem, to which in the kingdom the

MICAH 4:6 TO MICAH 5:1. EXILE AND RESTORATION: ISRAEL'S VICTORY OVER THE NATIONS. The reference to the Babylonian exile (Micah 4:10) shows that the passage is not earlier than the sixth century, Micah himself being concerned with Assyria, not Babylon. The sequence of thought is not clear, and it has been suggested that Micah 4:9 f. should precede Micah 4:6; Micah 4:11 ff. is apparently a distinct prophecy, describing a siege of Jerusalem which is eschatological rather than historic (_cf._...